The Ones You Love
by NiamhyNiamhyNumNums
Summary: Sirius and Meissa had never got on despite having a close mutual friend in the form of Remus Lupin. But when something happens and the other Marauders seemingly hate Sirius, Meissa can't help but to feel sorry for the boy that she thought that she despised.
1. Chapter 1

Okay, so I posted a version of this story up before, but I didn't like it much. I've done some tweaks and here's what happened. Bearing in mind, I have been doing this while also throwing up into a bucket, so there will probably be mistakes. Sorry.

Disclaimer: Only Meissa is mine.

Enjoy (hopefully)

Waking up blearily, just before dawn, I stumbled out of bed and made my way straight to the bathroom that I shared with the other girls in my dorm. Walking past the mirror which showed my green eyes, still slightly glazed from sleep, and my curly brown hair, right now: a nest of tangles and messy curls, I quickly undressed and hopped into the shower, hissing when the cold water bit into my skin. I shook my head a few times, the warming water splashing into my face. After I was finished, I grabbed my dressing gown from the hanger and walked back into the dorm, drying my hair into it's usual waves with a flick of my wand. I changed quickly into my basic knee-length school shirt, white shirt and jumper. I put on my red and gold tie, grabbed my bag and made my way downstairs into the common room, just as Lily Evans and the others were waking up.

I walked straight out of the empty common room and stumbled, tiredly to the great hall where a bacon sandwich was calling my name.

Sipping my orange juice, I fished my timetable out of my bag. I really needed to clean out that thing. I had bits of parchment everywhere! My mother would scandalised if she knew. Looking at the yellowed parchment I found that I was potions first lesson today. I sighed unhappily. It wasn't that I disliked potions per say, more like I found the lesson to be tediously boring and repetitive.

I was knocked out of my thinking by a hand on my shoulder, making me jump slightly. The laughing face of Remus Lupin stared down at me as I rolled my eyes.

"You jerk." I ground out, unable to stop the smile on my face. I vaguely noticed Potter and Pettigrew sitting opposite and made the effort to smile at them politely. The small boy and I never really managed to find common ground and despite being with each other all the time, we had never really talked. Whereas Potter and I had a tense relationship. I honestly thought that Potter was a decent person and I could get on with him well enough on his own. But that was the thing: he was never alone. He always had his sidekick: Sirius Black- the bane of my existence. Despite having a common friend in Remus, Black and I never managed to get on. We despised each other. We kept the fighting to a minimum when Remus was near as our feud made him feel conflicted and frustrated. When Remus was not in the picture however, things got ugly. Black and I had both been to the Infirmary many, many times due to certain, physical maladies; a missing limb there, baldness, pink skin...The list was endless.

After I had received a small smile from Pettigrew in return, I turned back to Remus, who had sat down in his usual spot next to me.

"I take it Tweedle Dumb hasn't risen from his pit yet?" I asked in a polite tone of voice. Remus gave me a warning look.

"No, Black hasn't gotten up yet." Potter replied, spitting his name. I frowned in confusion, but the bespectacled boy had turned his attention to his bacon and eggs, stabbing the meal viciously. Pettigrew looked morosely at his food, lazily spooning porridge into his mouth, half with tiredness and half with sadness.

I turned to Remus, but my questions died on my throat as I watched his face morph into fury as he glared at something behind me. Whipping my head around I saw that the victim of Remus' gaze was none other than Black himself. He was paler and more tired looking than usual and upon seeing Remus, the boy bit his lip guiltily and all but fled from the hall.

"Remus?" I asked quietly, my voice dripping with wary confusion. Remus sighed.

"Just, don't Meissa." he sighed, pinching his nose in an attempt to control his anger. I turned back to my breakfast silently, eating to try and ignore the raging silence.

Sooner than I would like, though it was about time I thought, the bell rang breaking the silence and signalling the start of lessons. I sighed as I again realised that I had potions.

The fact that the classroom was with the Slytherins in the dungeons did nothing to make me like the subject at all. Again sighing, I glanced at my watch. It was still early but it was boring here in the hall, listening to the muted, half asleep chatter of my classmates. I hopped off the bench and slowly made my was to the potions room walking with the Marauders (still minus one, I noted).

The Potions classroom was it's usually stuffy self, I noted, placing my books onto the table. Dark, dingy and also utterly dank. Though it was to be expected due to the fact that the classroom was in the heart of the dungeons. Why anybody would find comfort or a home in the dark underground was unfathomable to me. I preferred being high in the Gryffindor tower, sitting by myself in the corner, with a good book resting on my lap. Remus, Potter and Pettigrew moved to their usual table at the back.

Slughorn had already put the learning objectives and the potion we would be making for today's practical on the blackboard so, flipping to the right chapter in the book, I looked at the potion we would be making today. I was a fairly simple potion, so long as you remembered which way to stir every ten minutes.

Lighting the kindle beneath my cauldron I set about measuring the correct amount of ingredients needed, jumping when a bag landed with a thump on my usually empty table. Glancing at the old grainy worktop I first saw pale hands, unmistakeably male, with long, almost delicate fingers. I followed the curve of a jumper hidden sleeve to broad shoulders, a long graceful neck to a mop of soft black hair and steely grey eyes. Sirius Black. But why was he sitting here?

Looking around the now full classroom my eyes fell onto Remus, Potter and Pettigrew. Potter looked angry. In fact I would say he was furious judging by the barbarically savage way in which he was destroying the roots he needed in his potions just like he had at breakfast. It was alarming really: pieces of roots were flying everywhere and Potter was glaring straight at Black, as if he wished it were him he was stabbing. There was even a piece of root stuck in his ridiculously messy hair. I supressed a smirk at that because, if he saw me laughing at him, then I was pretty sure I would end up like the poor roots.

Pettigrew on the other hand, looked lost. Like he had lost one of his idols, and judging from the out-of-character serious (no pun intended) look on Black's face, I would say that he had.

Fiddling with my long brown hair nervously, I finally found the courage to speak. Looking straight at my bubbling cauldron I murmured, "You must have majorly messed things up with them if you're sitting with me of all people."

Black looked up, glaring at me defensively.

"And what's it to you, Morgenstern." he bit out. I sighed.

"I wasn't trying to pry, I was just making an observation." I replied, calmly, dropping some herbs into my potion. Looking, somewhat less hostile Black swallowed.

"Oh." he said simply, stirring his potion twice clockwise. I licked my lips, still nervous about speaking to him. After all, he and Potter had been the reason my five years at Hogwarts had been so trying, to say the least.

"So what did you do?" I asked, at last, smirking. He rolled his eyes, once again glaring at me like I was mud on his shoe, or some kind of bug that needed to be squashed.

"Are you serious?" he asked, his voice husky with anger. I shook my head.

"No, that's you mate." he rolled his eyes at the pathetic pun. "I know it's none of my business." I added reaching over the table to grab a vial as the potion would be ready soon. Sirius did the same.

"It's just, I guessed you might have royally screwed up with something and you feel guilty about it." I shrugged, turning the heat of the fire down slightly. Sirius frowned into his own flames.

"And how did you draw that conclusion?" he asked at last. I thought for a moment, trying to find the right words.

"Well, I guessed that if whatever happened between you, Remus and the others was just a simple argument then you would be sitting next to somebody that you talk with, such as McKinnon and the like. But you chose to sit with me. Like you want to punish yourself. So I presumed that you did something that you don't forgive yourself for and that it had an impact on the relationship you have with your friends. Also the fact that you practically fled from the Hall when Remus glared at you this morning" I said, glancing at him to gauge his reaction. He laughed once, humourlessly.

"I guess you're right." he muttered, bitterly, bottling up his potion. He grabbed his bag and left, stopping at Slughorn's desk to drop of his finished potion. Raising my eyebrows at the strange lesson I just had I too gathered my things. I gave the jovial professor my potion just as the bell rang, signalling the start of the second lesson.

So here you go, I hope you enjoyed this story. It would mean a lot to me if you reviewed. :)

NiamhNums

xx


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the late update, feeling quite uninspired about life at the moment. My GCSEs start on Tuesday and I still haven't properly revised. Oh well.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but Meissa.**

**Here we go, enjoy:**

No sooner had I walked out the door of the potions classroom, I found myself face down, sprawled over the floor, by books flying out my bag some distance from me. I sighed, hissing where my knees blossomed in pain and my hands were raw from where I had scraped them on the cold stone floor.

Bringing myself to my knees, I looked up to see who had tripped me this time, though I had fairly good guess. A head of carefully styled dark hair and cold grey eyes looked at me with thinly veiled disgust. Regulus Black, who else?

Sighing angrily, I stood up and grabbed my bag, shoving my books in them, willing the fat, salty tears not to fall from my eyes. To my chagrin they did not listen, and droplets of salty water made their way down my reddening cheeks. I wiped them away angrily, walking away only to walk straight into my tormentor. He jerked away, as if I would poison him.

"Watch where you're going, Freak." Black laughed, spitting the word as if it were a curse word. Honestly, after five years I wish that I could say that the word didn't faze me anymore, but I would be lying.

I'm just glad I have an excellent poker face. I saved the self-loathing crying fits for when I was tucked up in bed. Suddenly Black was shoved into the wall by none other than Remus Lupin. I felt a fierce sort of pride for my friend as he stuck up for me.

"Leave her alone Black." he growled, his want pointed at the younger boy's throat. A boy with long black hair and a big nose stepped through the crowds.

"Now, now Lupin, I wouldn't do that if I were you." Severus Snape drawled, his own wand pressed to Remus' temple.

Just then a Prefect saved Remus, dispersing the eagerly silent crowd. Black's cruel and taunting laugh stayed with me until I got to the Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom. Rushing in, later than what I would have normally been, I was glad to find that the Professor was, too, late in arriving.

Actually on further observation, I noticed that, despite my run-in with Black, I had still managed to arrive before half of the class. Strange really, you'd think that after five years of going to the same classroom, that some people would actually manage to get here on time? Flicking to the section we had been working on last lesson, I decided to go- over the chapter on the off chance the Professor would decide to have a little test on it. Speaking of the Professor I came to realise two things. One; I couldn't for the life of me, remember the man's name. At all. And two; he was five minutes late, six actually according to my watch.

Shaking my head in confusion at why the man wasn't here yet, I decided to simply read more of the textbook.

Once again I found myself jumping when a bag landed on the table.

Looking up from the book I noticed Black sit down, a surly look on his face. Despite the fact that he had no part to play in today's humiliation, I found myself to be rather annoyed at the boy.

"Are you going to make a habit of sitting with me Black?" I asked, not bothering to look up at him. I sensed him jerk in surprise at my cold tone.

"I'm afraid so..." he paused and I looked up at his face, which was screwed up in confusion. "I'm sorry Morgenstern. About before I mean, my brother isn't the nicest to people like you." he added, shrugging. I sighed angrily.

"Blood-Traitors you mean?" I snapped at him, looking at the words which began to blur together on the page.

"Are you alright?" Black asked, without any sort of pity in his voice. I looked at him in confused shock.

"Just fine." I ground out. "And for the record my name is Meissa. Not 'Morgenstern'" I added, glaring at him. He nodded, ignoring my angry look.

"I'm Sirius. Not just Black" he replied. I winced slightly.

"Whatever." I murmured, growing bored. Finally the Professor decided to grace us with his presence.

"Sorry about that. I slept in this morning." the small man exclaimed happily. My eyes widened and my eyebrows shot up. Was he serious? What kind of a ridiculous man, a Professor no less, could walk into a class, twenty minutes late and act as if nothing had happened? I rolled my eyes and bit my cheek in irritation. He turned to the blackboard, scribbling something on it in his unintelligible writing.

"Now, today we will be..." I drowned his tinny voice out, choosing instead to pore over the textbook, like I had a hundred times before. I heard Black swallow slightly next to me.

"For the record, unlike my brother: I don't really think you're a Freak." he said at last, refusing to meet my eyes. I glared slightly.

"You don't know me that well." I murmured. "There's still time." his grey eyes flashed back to my green ones in shock. He then smiled a little.

"Trust me, I have an intimate understanding of Freaks and people who are just insane. You don't seem to come close." he replied, his smile fading slightly.

"And, like I said; you don't know me." I said again, turning the page of my book.

"I know more than you give me credit for Morgenstern." was all he replied with before turning to the Professor who was talking about something uninteresting, leaving me with my textbook.

**So there we go. Another chapter down. What do you guys think so far? I know its kind of short, but I just felt the need to update. I hope you enjoyed,**

**NiamhyNums**

**xx**


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